Harry Redknapp must accept his portion of the blame for QPR's relegation

The QPR manager might have only arrived at Loftus Road in November, but he had plenty of time and resources to guide his team to safety.

With both QPR and Reading already set for the drop before they played out the goalless draw that condemned them to the Championship, there were some strange attempts to find a new angle on their relegation after the game this weekend, most of which revolved around whether Jose Bosingwa found it funny that QPR were going down.

However the real focus should have been on exactly why they had been relegated, and in QPR's case, the lack of an impact Harry Redknapp made on their fortunes should be examined. Redknapp has since come out saying he did not have enough time at the club, and that teams are built in the summer transfer window, not with a rush of signings in January.

Clearly Redknapp will want to avoid as much blame as he can, but it is ridiculous to suggest that he did not have the chance to keep QPR up this season. Mark Hughes left the team having picked up four points from twelve matches, undoubtedly an awful start, but it left Redknapp (taking the reins after the loss at Manchester United) with 25 games to turn things around.

Crucially, there was also a transfer window, and QPR did seem to sign two players that address key concerns in the squad, with Christopher Samba coming in to shore up the defence, and Loic Remy adding some class up front.

Seasons have been salvaged based on far less, and the fact that at 19%, Redknapp has a lower win percentage in the Premier League than any of QPR's other managers is worth mentioning.

Whether Redknapp sticks around at Loftus Road to try and get QPR promoted back to the Premier League at the first attempt is yet to be seen, but having been a major part of their calamitous season in the top flight, Redknapp might feel he owes another season to the R's, and he could even be anxious to prove that he can be a success there if given a summer to prepare his team.

Nick Harris

I'm Nick Harris, Spurs fan and sports writer. Alongside HITC, I'm the founder, editor, writer, and fan of footballspirals.com and can be found on Twitter - @nicksharris. When I'm not watching sport I'm usually drinking coffee and checking updates on my phone in an antisocial manner.